Technology platforms queue up for money

When the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) for research opens for business at the beginning of 2007, a group of business coalitions will be at the front of the queue for money.

These European Technology Platforms (ETPs) have played an important part in setting FP7’s research priorities, and they will be well-placed to bid for funds when these priorities are turned into calls for proposals. There is even a specific part of the programme - Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs) - designed to help them achieve their goals.

While the apparent circularity of this arrangement has caused concerns in the European Parliament, the European Commission has argued that these links with the ETPs will make the framework more relevant to industry than ever before.

The Commission began promoting the ETP concept in 2003, encouraging companies to form alliances around particular issues where technology development was of key importance. Although led by business, public sector and research organisations have also been involved. The virtue of this approach is that it not only focuses attention on key technological issues, but shows where the will to co-operate is strongest.

Initially the ETPs were asked to agree ‘vision’ statements for the technologies in question, then develop strategic research agendas setting out the necessary medium- and long-term objectives for bringing them to the brink of commercialisation. Having produced these agendas, the most advanced of the ETPs (there are 29 in total) are now expected to implement their plans, drawing on a wide range of public and private funding.

This is where FP7 comes in. The strategic research agendas were taken into account when the Commission drafted the priorities for the ‘co-operation’ part of FP7. It estimates that some 15 ETP agendas will be directly addressed by single themes in FP7, while a further ten will addressed by multiple themes. But the Commission insists that ETP projects will not be given priority funding and that all must represent genuine European added value if they are to be successful.

While many ETP-inspired projects can be addressed through FP7’s conventional funding mechanisms, there are special cases where a more co-ordinated European response is required, particularly to draw in the necessary public and private sector funding. These will be addressed by JTIs.

The JTIs will be set up and part-funded by the Commission through Article 171 of the EC treaty, a little-used provision that allows joint undertakings to be created for the implementation of research programmes. Most of the Commission’s experience with Article 171 comes from the joint undertaking that will implement the Galileo satellite navigation system, although it was also used to establish the Sesar air-traffic management-programme.

In October the Commis­sion’s research depart­ment will produce a road map for the Council of Ministers setting out its ambitions for the JTIs. "That won’t have a precise timetable, but it will send the message that we want to go as quickly as possible," explains an official in the office of Janez Potoc?nik, the research commis­sioner. "It certainly means that there could be proposals in the first half of 2007."

A first set of JTIs have already been identified, in innovative medicines (meaning the process of discovering and developing drugs rather than specific compounds), nanoelectronics, embedded computing systems, hydrogen and fuel cells, aeronautics and air traffic management and global monitoring for environmental and security applications. Further JTIs could emerge during the course of the programme and the Commission has already flagged up zero-emission power generation and renewable energy as possible contenders.

Given the use of Article 171, each JTI proposal will have to go through consultation with the Parliament before being approved by the Council. "In the best of conditions, if there is big political support and willingness, it can be done in six months," the cabinet official explains.

JTIs will also be expected to draw on the risk-sharing finance facility that FP7 will establish with the European Investment Bank.

Here framework funding is being used to increase the bank’s capacity to manage risk, allowing it to loan more than before to technology projects with moderate risk levels and letting in others previously considered too risky to support. JTI projects will automatically be eligible for such funding.

• Ian Mundell is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

When the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) for research opens for business at the beginning of 2007, a group of business coalitions will be at the front of the queue for money.